Scope and Content

Miscellaneous notes, transcripts, and original documents compiled and collected by John Eglington Bailey (1840-1888) FSA. Some of the notes are in shorthand.

Administrative / Biographical History

The antiquary, John Eglington Bailey, was born at Edgbaston, Birmingham, on 13 February 1840, the son of Charles Bailey and Mary Elizabeth Bailey, daughter of John Eglington of Ashbourne. His family removed to Lancashire during his childhood, and he was educated at Boteler’s Grammar School, Warrington, and at Owen's College, Manchester. He was employed at the counting-house of the Ralli Brothers, Manchester, where he remained until 1886.

However, Bailey’s life-long interest was the work of the ecclesiastical historian, Thomas Fuller (1608-61). His lecture on Fuller to the Manchester Phonographic Union, was printed in the Popular Lecturer (1864). He devoted his holidays to visiting Fuller’s places of residence, and Bailey’s most important contribution was his Life of Thomas Fuller (Manchester: T. J. Day, 1874). His scholarship was recognised by his election as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Bailey had intended to issue a two-volume edition of Fuller’s sermons, but this project was never completed, and Bailey edited only one of Fuller’s sermons: A Sermon of Reformation (Manchester: T.J. Day, 1875). Bailey’s intended project was later completed and edited by W.E.A. Axon (1891). Bailey amassed a large library of antiquarian and general literature, and also collected numerous works on stenography with a view to writing a history and bibliography of English stenography, but this was another project that was never realised.

He delivered lectures to various literary and local history societies, including the Manchester Literary Club, Urmston and Flixton Literary and Scientific Society, and the Leigh Literary Society. He was also a member of the Chetham Society, serving as a councillor (1876-88) and Honorary Secretary (1882-8), as well as a councillor of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society (1884-9). A member of the Chorlton Road Congregational Church, he also compiled a Manual of the Chorlton Road Congregational Church, Manchester (Manchester: James Andrew, 1877). From 1886, illness impaired Bailey’s research and studies, and he died, aged 48, at Etchells, Stockport, Cheshire, on 23 August 1888. He was buried at Stretford Church, Manchester, on 27 August 1888. In 1866, he had married Emma Mills, the second daughter of Samuel Mills of Ardwick, and they had four children.

Inventories of goods in the churches and chapels of Lancashire, taken in the year A.D. 1552, Part II: West Derby, Blackburn and Leyland Hundreds, ed. J.E. Bailey, Chetham Society, old ser., 113 (1888).

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on access to this collection. Viewing is by prior appointment. Please contact archivist@chethams.org.uk

Acquisition Information

John Eglington Bailey’s personal library was sold by auction at Capes, Dunn & Pilcher, Manchester, from 24 to 30 June 1889, and it is not entirely clear how Chetham’s Library acquired the collection. In June 1889 the Library’s General Purposes Committee authorised the Librarian to spend up to £60 on the purchase of the Bailey manuscripts at the forthcoming sale; however, in a note in the catalogue, John Cree noted, ‘Catalogue of the Manuscripts of the late J. E. Bailey presented to the Chetham Library by R. C. Christie, Chancellor of the Diocese of Manchester’. Presumably, this note refers to Cree’s catalogue and not to the entire Bailey collection, and since there are no details of Christie's donation in the Library records, it thus appears that the Library purchased the Bailey manuscripts but was given Cree’s catalogue in the following year.